My health broke down in the end

[sovay]

I don't know when The Magician's Nephew (1955) became my favorite of the Chronicles of Narnia. I suspect it's because as unassilable as some of the other books are in their characters and imagery, this is the one that's stranger each time I re-read it. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a solstice ritual, to simplify drastically. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is an odyssey. The Silver Chair is a northern quest. The Magician's Nephew is a weird tale detoured into a creation myth—it begins with a mad scientist in the attic¹ reverse-engineering interdimensional travel from the dust of Atlantis, moves swiftly through classic science fiction like dying earths and post-apocalypse and time that runs differently in different worlds (and the place between worlds where there is no time at all) before zigzagging back for a comic interlude in Edwardian London, and then we are into the heart of myth: singing the sun up, the animals out of the earth; the boy who let death in. The first words of the story belong to metafiction, the last to self-delusion, as though to remind the reader never to take narrators for granted.² And yet we're told of beautiful and terrible things, the dead sun of Charn and the growing silence of the Wood between the Worlds, the song of the stars, the phoenix in the garden, the silver apples of youth and the Witch's salt-white face, eternal life stained like blood around her mouth. Children who rescue their parents, a smuggler's cave in the rafters. Polly Plummer is working on a story. It's not a perfect book; I'm not sure any of the Chronicles are. But it's like nothing except itself, if only because it's such a chimera, and that has always worked very well for me.

fleurdelis28 arrives tonight. I think the last time we saw one another in person, there was snow on the ground and a holiday going on. Maybe I should get out more.

1. Andrew Ketterley thinks of himself as a magician and is acknowledged as such by the narrator, by Digory, and by the scornful Jadis—"a little, peddling Magician who works by rules and books. There is no real Magic in your blood and heart"—but between his experiments and his exploding guinea pigs, he's much more in line with the traditional mad scientists who practice at the boundaries of alchemy; think of the pentagrams in Rotwang's house or Dr. Pretorius' homunculi. He even looks the part, tall and thin and greyly shock-headed. He has the proper obsessed self-concern. Of course, the mechanical, empirical approach Uncle Andrew takes toward magic gets him in far more trouble than mysticism ever would have. "Ours, my boy, is a high and lonely destiny," meet "Who ever heard of a lion singing?"

2. Lewis-as-storyteller claims, "This is a story about something that happened long ago when your grandfather was a child . . . In those days Mr. Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street and the Bastables were looking for treasure in the Lewisham Road," setting the timeline for fact with fiction. But it is Uncle Andrew, never really quite reformed, who gets in the last word: "But he always liked to get visitors alone in the billiard room and tell them stories about a mysterious lady, a foreign royalty, with whom he had driven about London. 'A devilish temper she had,' he would say. 'But she was a dem fine woman, sir, a dem fine woman.'"

Comments

[timesygn.livejournal.com]

Moved by nought beyond mere instinct, I am moved to hope that all is well is your world.

[sovay]

Moved by nought beyond mere instinct, I am moved to hope that all is well is your world.

Thank you. I should still point out that the title of this post is a line of Uncle Andrew's—

"Meanwhile," continued Uncle Andrew, "I was learning a good deal in other ways (it wouldn't be proper to explain them to a child) about Magic in general. That meant that I came to have a fair idea what sort of things might be in the box. By various tests I narrowed down the possibilities. I had to get to know some—well, some devilish queer people, and go through some very disagreeable experiences. That was what turned my head grey. One doesn't become a magician for nothing. My health broke down in the end. But I got better. And at last I actually knew."

—and therefore not to be trusted without a little examination.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

seconded, nonetheless.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I love this post of yours.

It is a wonderful book; has some of the best moments in it--and caused me my first sincere anxiety for the world. "We don't really have something like the Deplorable Word, do we?" I asked my mother. And then she broke it to me that yes, in fact, we did.

And timesygn may have wise instincts. Take care of yourself. You know, I thought of you on Tuesday. One day I hope to walk around your town with you. I will show you the house that I thought was like Professor Kirk's.

[sovay]

It is a wonderful book; has some of the best moments in it

All right, I can go on about this book for pages; what are your favorites?

--and caused me my first sincere anxiety for the world. "We don't really have something like the Deplorable Word, do we?" I asked my mother. And then she broke it to me that yes, in fact, we did.

Yes. I knew about nuclear holocaust by the time I read the book; it doesn't make Jadis' story less chilling. "A moment later I was the only living thing beneath the sun."

And timesygn may have wise instincts. Take care of yourself.

Thank you. I am working on it.

I will show you the house that I thought was like Professor Kirk's.

I would love to know which one that is.

[eredien]

The last time I read The Magician's Nephew I didn't know that Lewis hadn't invented the Wood Beyond the World. Now I have to do a re-read.

[sovay]

The last time I read The Magician's Nephew I didn't know that Lewis hadn't invented the Wood Beyond the World. Now I have to do a re-read.

I am confused. I thought The Wood Beyond the World was William Morris. Does it also contain an in-between place?

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I've never thought of it quite that way, but you've made excellent points about TMN.

I wonder if Lewis actually invented the magician-as-mad-scientist trope?

I hope you and fleurdelis28 have an excellent time together. I also hope that things are well with you, or at least all right.

[sovay]

I've never thought of it quite that way, but you've made excellent points about TMN.

For years, if asked to pick a favorite of the Chronicles, I would have hesitated between the first three books or pointed to The Silver Chair. Then one day I woke up and realized The Magician's Nephew was the one that had gotten into my brain. I could probably sort all kinds of early imprints out of it. And it's a successful fusion of science fantasy (unlike That Hideous Strength (1945), which I read eagerly after Out of the Silent Planet (1938) and Perelandra (1943) and had such a violently negative reaction to, I have not yet attempted a re-read. I'm not sure if it was the severed head possessed by demons, or the evil scientists and their obvious acronym, or the unforeshadowed Arthuriana that kind of ate the plot, but it did not work for me). Its distinction between other planets and other worlds is one that I'm sure was an introduction to many readers. It might have been mine.

I wonder if Lewis actually invented the magician-as-mad-scientist trope?

I very much doubt it. It's an easily blurred line; Dr. Faustus, Frankenstein, and the two examples I cite all predate him.

I also hope that things are well with you, or at least all right.

Thank you. I'm doing what I can.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Holy Joe, I love that book. Sadly, I think it's had more influence on me than anything else I've ever read.

[sovay]

Holy Joe, I love that book. Sadly, I think it's had more influence on me than anything else I've ever read.

What's sad about that? God knows what it did to my brain!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Why sad? What an awesome influence!

[ookpik.livejournal.com]

I think The Silver Chair is still my favorite, mostly because Jill is the only one of the Earth-kids I ever liked. But yes, so much that's wonderful about The Magician's Nephew.

And I will part company with almost everybody and say that I love That Hideous Strength. Well, I have a love-hate relationship with it. The Head imagery works very well for me (mostly because that whole aspect of the plot is an essential working-out of CSL's theology as I understand it), but the stuff on women and their role...no, no, no.

But the Descent of the Eldils sequence...ah, that's magnificent, perhaps my favorite of all CSL's fiction.

[sovay]

I think The Silver Chair is still my favorite, mostly because Jill is the only one of the Earth-kids I ever liked.

I liked most of the children—I think the later protagonists are much better delineated as people than the Pevensies, but I assume that's because C.S. Lewis figured out what he was doing as he went along. Jill does archery, of course, which is a major point in her favor.

The Head imagery works very well for me (mostly because that whole aspect of the plot is an essential working-out of CSL's theology as I understand it)

Explain?

But the Descent of the Eldils sequence...ah, that's magnificent, perhaps my favorite of all CSL's fiction.

I am considering a re-read of the Space Trilogy. I reacted so badly to That Hideous Strength, I may have to nerve myself up to it, but if so I'll let you know what I think this time around.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I've always been a Dawn Treader kid myself, but your post is making me look at MN afresh. I've fought shy of it in the past, though mostly for a reason that has little to with the book itself. My mother worked for Geoffrey Bles in the '50s, when they were publishing the first Narnia books. When one of her colleagues left for the Bodley Head, she managed to lure CSL with her, which caused much tooth-gnashing at Bles - and The Magician's Nephew was the first of the Bodley Head publications. I've long nurtured a private conspiracy theory that the subsequent reordering of the Chronicles of Narnia (soi-disant) to put that book first was really motivated by a wish to boost BH's sales, whatever the aesthetic damage to the series. But I have no evidence, admittedly, and either way it's not the book's fault!

[sovay]

I've always been a Dawn Treader kid myself

That is fair. I love many pieces of the book—the island of dreams, the star and his daughter, the Sea People and the light-filled sea of the Utter East. Reepicheep. I did not love Eustace's transformation, not because it wasn't a relief to see him turn into someone who didn't annoy me on a page-by-page basis, but because I never went for the demonic view of dragons; I prefer them elemental, not petty.

but your post is making me look at MN afresh.

If your look should turn into thoughts, I would love to hear them.

My mother worked for Geoffrey Bles in the '50s, when they were publishing the first Narnia books.

That's neat!

I've long nurtured a private conspiracy theory that the subsequent reordering of the Chronicles of Narnia (soi-disant) to put that book first was really motivated by a wish to boost BH's sales, whatever the aesthetic damage to the series.

Don't even get me started. When I worked at a children's bookstore, I handed parents The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe regardless of the numbers on the spine. At least they're doing the movies in publication order.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

The Silver Chair was my favourite when I was five, and it's still my favourite.

The Edwardian bits of TMN seem to me to be derivative of E. Nesbit's The Story of the Amulet, and even Jadis in London seems that way. When I think of that book, I think of Charn.

[sovay]

The Silver Chair was my favourite when I was five, and it's still my favourite.

I can respect that. The Silver Chair has the Lady of the Green Kirtle, and Bism, and Puddleglum, who is very dear to me. Also I think it made me read Hamlet.

The Edwardian bits of TMN seem to me to be derivative of E. Nesbit's The Story of the Amulet, and even Jadis in London seems that way.

At least it's likely to be a conscious homage, since Lewis uses E. Nesbit as scene-setting at the beginning of the book (although I don't know if I knew that when I first read The Magician's Nephew. I may have taken the Bastables at face value). I barely remember The Story of the Amulet. The ones we had in the house were The Phoenix and the Carpet, The Story of the Treasure Seekers, and The Book of Dragons; I think by title it has to be the one with the Egyptologist, which means it's also the one with the random crazy anti-Semitism. Possibly I should re-read.

[gaudynight78.livejournal.com]

I don't hate all of That Hideous Strength, but boy howdy could I do without the gratuitous slams at contraception. Lewis's weakest point is definitely anything having to do with women. From a psychoanalytical point of view one can hardly blame him, but still.

I will have to step up as the lonely defender of The Last Battle, though. What can I say, I have a New Jerusalem complex. It probably goes with being a priest.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree with you about the New Jerusalem. I find the first half of LB too painful, though. Misunderstandings and false accusations always make me wince, whether it's Othello or P. G. Wodehouse.

[sovay]

I don't hate all of That Hideous Strength, but boy howdy could I do without the gratuitous slams at contraception.

Man. I don't even remember those. My brain must have shut down in self-defense before that point.

I will have to step up as the lonely defender of The Last Battle, though.

I love the actual apocalypse of Narnia. The stars rain down from the lightless sky, the earth swarms with terrible lizards and the sea drowns all the dry land, the giant whose dreaming name was Time squeezes out the sun like an orange* and nothing is left but blackness and bitter cold: it feels like ragnarök. When the oft-evoked god Tash finally makes an appearance, it is genuinely unsettling—four-armed, vulture-headed, carrying a reek of cold with it—which is kind of hard on the faithful Calormenes (aside from Emeth), but at least it's not an imitation demon. I'm not even going to argue with the portrayal of the dwarfs who form hell inside their own heads, one up on Sartre. I was not the target audience for the rest of the book.

What can I say, I have a New Jerusalem complex. It probably goes with being a priest.

It's good to know you're in the right profession!

* And again, there is something both scientifically and mythologically haunting in the star-fall and Time's destruction of the sun: time-lapsed photography of the red-shift at the end of the universe, red giant crushed to white dwarf and then out.

[clarionj.livejournal.com]

Well, I've missed out on something apparently grand and important. I'll have to remedy that. Your summation alone has stirred me.

(Are you okay? I wish you all you need for wellness and anything tender or strong that I can give, as you need.)

[sovay]

I'll have to remedy that. Your summation alone has stirred me.

Heh. I think most of the votes in this post went to The Silver Chair or The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but I hope you enjoy the other books, too!

(Are you okay? I wish you all you need for wellness and anything tender or strong that I can give, as you need.

(I am not great. I'm working on improvement.)

[gaudior.livejournal.com]

It does seem in many ways to have more genre scope than the others, doesn't it? And is so cool. My favorite has always been Voyage of the Dawn Treader, mostly I think because a) it has the best first line ever, and b) Eustace actually has complexity! and character development! and stuff, in ways that feel much more convincing than most of the other characters in Narnia.

[sovay]

It does seem in many ways to have more genre scope than the others, doesn't it?

It has a multiverse. And it doesn't seem very concerned about what genre it's in. I refuse, however, to categorize it retroactively as slipstream.

a) it has the best first line ever

This is true. And gains a certain authenticity being authored by someone named Clive Staples.

b) Eustace actually has complexity! and character development! and stuff, in ways that feel much more convincing than most of the other characters in Narnia.

How do you feel about Edmund? Or is he too much Judas transplanted, while Eustace is just difficult in ordinary ways?